Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Romans 8:1-11
Luke 13:1-9

 

Reflection:

Constant Call to Conversion

I was privileged to visit the excavations of Beit She’an, a 7,000 year old city near the Jordan River.  Over 3000 years ago the headless corpse of King Saul was hung on the wall of the city.  Being at the excavations was a powerful reminder that this talented charismatic leader was brought to a terribly horrible end because he foolishly turned away from God.

In today’s Gospel Jesus reminds us that most dangerous thing in the world is to turn away from God.  “Unless you convert you likewise will perish.”   The word for convert in the original Greek is metavoeo.  It means give an afterthought to the event.  It is difficult to translate in English.  It basically means to reconsider, have second thoughts about God’s concern about us.   The word occurs 58 times in New Testament showing its importance in the Gospel.  The Scriptures use a number of different terms for the same idea.  The OT Hebrew uses “turn”, “face”, “repentance”  and other words to express turning to God.

In our Gospel for the day the word for conversion is in the present tense indicating that the call to turn to God is ongoing.  There are special moments of grace which move us profoundly, but the call for turning to God with ever deepening understanding of His love for us is a daily command.  St. Paul of the Cross used to encourage his religious to turn to God a thousand times a day if possible.  Even in the best of us there is a certain aversion to conversion.  Trivial things take on an importance that far outweighs their significance.

Both John the Baptist and Jesus began their preaching career with:” “Repent (metavoeo), for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Mt 4:17 The imperative of Jesus calls attention to the closeness of God.   Jesus Himself is the “autobasilius”.  Origen reminds us his presence is the kingdom.  When we turn to Him our action takes on an excitement like none other! He is “the living One”  “In His presence is the fullness of joy.”  Ps 16:11 When the young man departs from Christ in Mk 10:17 he is “gloomy”, and “he went away grieving”.   The ultimate sadness in life is to live unattached to Christ, “the Living One”!

 

Fr. Bob Weiss, C.P. preaches Parish Missions and is a member of the Passionist Community in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Romans 7:18-25a
Luke 12:54-59

Reflection:

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus points out to the crowds that they can look at the clouds and the sky and be able to predict the weather, but they can’t see Him for who He is: “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”

Why indeed? It seems to me that an answer to Jesus’ question might have something to do with assumptions being made. When the people could see a cloud and predict rain, or feel the wind and predict heat, they still knew they could not assume when and how those signs would appear. But for some reason, they thought they could assume how the Messiah would appear, and Jesus did not match their assumptions. So, their preconceived notions about the Messiah blinded them to the reality of the Messiah before them.

Thinking about assumptions may help us understand the second half of our Gospel reading, too. Jesus also says: “If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate, make an effort to settle the matter on the way; otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the constable, and the constable throw you into prison.” When we are in a conflict with someone, we often assume that we are in the right. But maybe that isn’t so. Perhaps, then, we need to find out. We may learn something. It has been my experience that when I have encountered or even tried to help people who are different from myself, that I needed to let go of a lot of assumptions about them.

Letting go of assumptions can help us see things and people as they are, and enables us to love others as Jesus loves us. May our eyes and ears be open to interpret the signs of the times.

 

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P. is on staff at St. Paul of the Cross Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan. 

Feast of Saint John Paul II

Scripture:

Romans 6:19-23
Luke 12:49-53   

Reflection:

As we read or hear the scriptures for today’s Eucharist, perhaps we hear the crashing together of several seemingly different dimensions of the New Testament message.  We have often heard Saint Paul talk to us about living in the freedom of God’s children while today we wrestle with an understanding of our being “enslaved” to God rather than sin. We hear crashing!!!

We reverence and hold dear  the Last Supper discourse of Jesus in the Gospel of John in which Jesus speaks eloquently of the Peace He leaves with us and His Peace which is His gift to us  (John 14 : 27).  Today, Jesus in Saint Luke fires up the skies with His bold proclamation that we ought not to think that He has come to bring peace.  Rather, He has come to bring division and enmity and He cannot wait until it is all in motion.  Are we hearing crashing?

Sometimes we see these Scriptures and take a deep breath in the hopes they will quickly pass us by so that we need not go into too much troubled search for some sense from them.  We prefer living in the freedom of God’s children and basking in the peace Jesus says He left behind.  But here we are looking into the eyes of a thought provoking daily scripture.

I remember studying the Canon Law of Sacred Orders at Catholic University.  We were looking at the moment when a man was enrolled or inscripted into the clerical state.  The original code carried the meaning that a man “enslaves” himself to God and the service of God’s People at that moment.  I always thought that this was a very expressive understanding of the calling that a deacon or priest receives and undertakes in responding to that call.  Then it occurred to me that actually, this is very expressive of the undertaking of every baptized believer and disciple.  By virtue of our baptism, we are “enslaved” to the Lord and the Lord’s People.   This is a slavery of love, of joy, of a perpetual union leading to everlasting happiness.  The more we empty ourselves for God and God’s People, the fuller we become.  We grow to full stature into the person God always intended us to be by placing ourselves in service to God and all of our brothers and sisters.  No crashing here – only discipleship seen from a different vantage point.

We are lead straight into the message of Jesus today.  Jesus is talking about a commitment so intense that He aches for it to be fulfilled with every fiber of His being.  What commitment?  Jesus came to be our Savior.  His commitment is to fulfill that promise to redeem us which God make in ages past.  Jesus is here to reveal that God is true to His promises, God fulfills His promises.  As the journey toward Jerusalem continues from this point forward in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus sees Himself moving headlong into a fray that will result in His violent and unjust sufferings and death.  All who follow Him and announce the Good News of salvation by their words and lives will follow in His footsteps.  That intense commitment will inevitably cause others to question, reject, move away from, and even become hostile toward one who is faithful to the commitment.  Jesus will experience it.  He warns the early disciples they will experience it – and they did.  He warns us we will experience it in our own lives – and we sometimes do.  If we “enslave” ourselves through baptism to the Good News of salvation and announce it with joy, we very well may experience division and enmity on the part of others but the Word will be out there.  It is an “enslavement” of love and of joy to God and God’s kingdom.  No crashing here – only a union and labor of love that can never be broken or set aside no matter what storms arise.

Through it all, we follow the example of the Lord Jesus who looked to His heavenly Father for strength and companionship in the journey and in the labor.  We cannot do it alone.  We need divine strength and the support of one another in the life of discipleship.  We have a wonderful twentieth and twenty first century inspiration in the person of Saint John Paul II.  His persistence and intensity in announcing the Good News of salvation captured the world’s attention for decades.  May each of us be blessed with joy, peace and persistence in our call to do the same.

 

Fr. Richard Burke, CP, is a member of St. Paul of the Cross Province.  He lives at St. Ann’s Monastery in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Scripture:

Romans 6:12-18
Luke 12:39-48

Reflection:

The scriptural readings assigned for today display a marked interest in the role of sin in our lives.  But there’s a somewhat unique or different pattern in the presentation we have before us.  There’s a bit of a sly approach to the topic.  Instead of focusing exclusively on the ugliness or distortedness of sin, it opts rather to present it largely in terms of the background of attractiveness with which it can be contrasted.  This occurs along the line of “correction” techniques a parent might take with a child who has just done something wrong.  Instead of dealing with the selfishness or meanness the child has displayed in opting to do something, our readings for the day would suggest pointing out how contrary our behavior has been over against the background of the many good things we have received from God, much as a parent might take the child on his or her lap, not to spank the boy or girl, but to remind him or her of how many good things the parent has done for the little one, to impart a sense of shame for doing something so contrary to the thoughtfulness he or she has received from the mother or father over the past few weeks or months.

This is the path St. Paul has chosen to pursue in the selection from his letter to the members of the church in Rome.  He is obviously displeased with the course of action they have chosen to follow against the background of the favors God has bestowed on them.  But he doesn’t “throw the book at them”.  Rather, he reminds them of being under the grace of God and having been raised from death to the life of grace.  They were on the way to being obedient to the teaching Paul had imparted to them.  But they have “blown” their opportunity, and suffered a significant loss as a result.

So Paul chooses to work on the good things they are jeopardizing rather than on the evil they have chosen to do.  And Luke, in the gospel he presents today, follows much the same pattern in pointing out the path for his readership to follow.  He compares the recipients of his gospel to servants who have received a set of directions on what to do during the absence of the owner of an establishment where they work.  The owner or manager is aware that trouble might develop in the household during this period of time, and he wants them to be prepared to deal with it when it occurs, by assigning them responsibilities.  And when a disturbance does occur on or around the property, traceable to the servants themselves, then the owner wants them to know they will suffer the consequences of this, which, however will be meted out fairly, depending on the degree of responsibility they bear in the hierarchy of duties the master gave them.  But here again, the focus is less on the nature of the wrong the servants committed, and more on the goodness of the owner in awarding them various gifts and favors, which they have disregarded and even disparaged.  It’s not so much the evil done but the good forgotten and abused that stands at the heart of this story.

So this is instructive for us in assessing our own standing before God.  We had better prepare ourselves for our encounter with Him by focusing more on the favors from Him we have neglected, than by trying to recall the ugly ways we have chosen to follow.  It’s a bit like trying to train a young animal the “rules of the house”, either by punishing the pup or kitten for every violation of the rule, or by awarding the young ones in training each time they keep those rules.  The day’s scriptures seem to favor the latter approach more than the former.  It is interesting to note how this corresponds to the last judgment scene presented in Mt 25.31, ff., where the focus is less on the evil we have deliberately pursued in the course of our lives, and more on the good we have failed to perform when we had the opportunity.  The repulsiveness of evil is less cogent than the attractiveness of goodness.  This is a helpful hint for us to note as we prepare for that momentous day ahead of us.

Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, C.P. is a member of the Passionist formation community at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. 

Feast of St. Paul of the Cross, Founder of the Passionists

Scripture:

Romans 5:12, 15b, 17-19, 20b-21
Luke 12:35-38

Reflection:

Today we Passionists celebrate the feast of St. Paul of the Cross, our Holy Founder (1694-1775).  It is a day for remembering this remarkable man and his profound insight into the mystery of God.  Paul Daneo started out as a young man fascinated by the Passion of Jesus Christ.  From his earliest years Paul recognized in the human sufferings of Christ a divine commitment to the human family.  Paul spent his entire life reflecting on the meaning of the love God has for us.  In his early years Paul burned with the desire to participate in the sufferings of Christ in his own person through long hours of prayer, penance, self-discipline, severe poverty and fasting.  He gathered companions to share in this life and threw himself into preaching the great love revealed in the passion and death of Jesus Christ.  In the mature years of his life we witness a man totally absorbed in God’s love and filled with a desire to share that love with everyone he met.  Paul is, indeed, a fascinating man who lives the transforming experience of giving oneself over totally to a God who loves us!

St. Paul of the Cross is clearly a vivid example of the truth of the testimony of St. Paul the Apostle in his letter to the Corinthians.  God’s wisdom and power, revealed in the Passion of His Son, Jesus Christ, is truly beyond human understanding.

Paul Daneo spent his entire life embracing the mystery of Christ Crucified.  The depth of Paul’s compassion and commitment to the people in his life, from the outcasts of the Tuscan Maremma (marshes), to the families he guided, to the church leaders he advised, to the companions he gathered around him to share in his life, inspired them all to an ever-deeper conviction that God loved them beyond their understanding.  The love they experienced in Paul’s reflections on the Crucified Christ enriched their lives and deepened their own commitment to living their lives generously and faithfully.

As we remember the example of this great Saint, we ask God to keep us centered in the love God has for us as revealed in the Passion and Death of His Son.

 

Fr. Michael Higgins, C.P. is the director of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Romans 4:20-25
Luke 12:13-21

Reflection:

May we never boast, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the word of the Cross is the power of God to us who have been saved. (Entrance Antiphon)

Today, the Church celebrates the life and death of the North American Martyrs, St. John de Brébeuf, St. Isaac Jogues, four other Jesuit priests, and two lay missionaries. These men came to North America as missionaries, to live and minister among the Huron and Mohawk nations.

The first of these missionaries arrived in “New France” in 1622. For twenty years, the Jesuit missionaries cultivated personal and social relationships with various indigenous peoples living in the region. Eventually, they focused their attention upon the Huron and Mohawk nations, who were numerous and somewhat volatile. The persecution of the missionaries began in 1642 and ended with the last one being martyred, in 1649. While this mission seemed to be an utter failure, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, an Algonquin-Mohawk Christian, born in 1656 and catechized by the Jesuits of the region, became an example of what committed missionary ministry accomplished.

Recently, while celebrating Mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., Pope Francis I canonized St. Junipero Sierra, a Franciscan missionary to California. There was a lot of controversy over his declaration of sainthood. While there may be reasons why not to name him a saint, there are also many reasons why. First and foremost, St. Junipero Sierra was a missionary, whose heart led him to leave homeland in order to evangelize. The Evangelizer recognizes the tremendous transformation that needs to take place within one’s self, as he or she prepares to witness to the Gospel by word and deed. A missionary will never leave behind the culture of birth, but will need to begin recognizing the Gospel reflected in the lives and cultures of the people who are being served.

Being a missionary in other lands is an extremely difficult way of life. Passionists have been called to be missionaries from the very beginning of our foundation. One of our more famous missionaries is Blessed Dominic Barberi, C.P., who received into the Church, Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman of England.

The Passionist of Holy Cross Province have always had missionaries to other lands. Dedicated Passionist missionaries have gone to Argentina, China, Japan, Korea, India, to name a few of our missionary foundations. As Pope Francis continues to remind us, we are a Mission Church and we are a Church with a Mission. It is not enough to receive the Gospel within our hearts. We are called to go out and proclaim the Good News to every land and people until the end of time.

In the eyes of some, St. John de Brébeuf and companions were fools to go and put themselves in harm’s way, to try to bring human dignity and the Divine to a people who did not know Jesus the Christ. We may be fools to believe that everyone of us is called to be “missionary” Catholic without leaving our house! Foolishness, indeed!

But who is more foolish? The man we find in today’s Gospel or St. Paul, the Apostle who says, “We are Fools for Christ!” (I Cor. 4:10) May our foolishness lead us to eternal life!

 

Fr. Clemente Barrón, C.P. is a member of Christ the King Community in Citrus Heights, California. 

Scripture:

Isaiah 53:10-11
Hebrews 4:14-16
Mark 10:35-45

Reflection:

There is old wisdom in the saying “be careful what you wish for”. Indeed ideas often precede actions and sometimes they have an effect on us at the subconscious level and thus have the capacity to surface and influence our actions before we even realise it. When an idea, even one suppressed for a time suddenly surfaces it can surprise us and influence us to act in ways that might not correspond to our value systems or even to our choices already made. Perhaps in another sense today’s gospel text reminds us of Andy Warhol’s oft quoted suggestion that ‘everyone wants 15 minutes of fame’.

Not that harbouring ambition or desires is wrong in itself. Indeed everyone has a basic ambition to find meaning, belonging and authenticity in life. However the danger seems to be that these genuine pursuits can also be misdirected into a more undeveloped, egocentric pursuit of status, power or control.

This seems to be the tenure of the request James and John put to Jesus. They seek the status of a closer association with Jesus, but they miss the deeper truth and meaning of what ‘leadership’ is in the vision of Jesus. Notice that Jesus immediately puts their shallow interpretation of leadership on notice – he immediately links leadership to the capacity and willingness to make sacrifices and suffer for the sake of others, and in that way lead by example.

Let’s notice too the reactions of the other disciples to this request. Their response is one of indignation and this is also telling.  Indignation is often directed at others and their perceived ‘poor’ behaviour, but like many reactions that take place it also reveals something about the person who is indignant. A useful reflection for ourselves might be to ask ‘What is happening within me when I am indignant at the behaviour of others?’  In the case of the others disciples in today’s gospel, could it be that their feelings arise from jealousy? Could it be that they secretly harbour the same desires for the very same recognition and privileges? Whatever, the lesson for us might be that our external reactions to any situation can be useful guides to us – if reviewed honestly and openly – in that they might reveal to us our own inner world and its harboured desires.

This is so important for all of us in living the various expressions of our leadership in society, church, family or workplace. Yes the exercise of power whether personal or institutional is a real part of life and it is necessary. Power, wisely and compassionately exercised enables authority to be manifested so that good may eventuate. But if power is exercised in a shallow or self-centred manner and used so that one’s own will prevails at the expense of others’ legitimate needs, then we have entered the territory that Jesus warns about, a world where “rulers lord it over” their people. In essence this is self-serving behaviour, while it can look like ‘strength’ it reveals weakness, self-centredness or selfishness on the part of the bearer. It serves self-interest rather than enabling the service of others.

For Jesus leadership is intimately connected to service and sacrifice; together they form the one reality.

We all “lead” in numerous ways. Leadership surfaces in relationships, marriages and in family systems just as much as it is present in organisations and wider community based associations. The words of Jesus are indeed challenging- if we want to lead then this comes with an inherent invitation to assume the posture of a slave, to be a servant and to give one’s life for the sake of others.

 

Fr. Denis Travers, C.P., is a member of Holy Spirit Province, Australia.  He currently serves on the General Council and is stationed in Rome.

Scripture:

Romans 4:13. 16-18
Luke 12:8-12

Reflection:

If Abraham was to be the father of many nations, the members of that large family would need to be like their father.  Chances are all could not do the same things that Abraham was able to do.  Some might be more artistic; some may be carpenters; some good a teaching, etc.  Their oneness with their father Abraham would not depend on doing the same things.  Rather, it would depend on their trusting openness in faith to the free gift of God’s grace falling upon them.  They would all share in the righteousness of Abraham not through works but through faith.

Faith opens and keeps open our hearts to the flow of God’s love.  Jesus tells us that the only sin that cannot be forgiven is the sin that closes the heart to the flow of God’s forgiving grace.

The flow of God’s Spirit within us puts us into an oneness with God.  In times of necessity, we need not worry about what to say or not say.  Because of our intimacy with Jesus, he can speak through us by the Holy Spirit he has given to us and who dwells within our hearts.

Faith makes us a channel through which flows the power and love of God.  Our challenge is to let it flow.  If we try to dam in up and keep it for ourselves, it will become stagnant and a source of death rather than a river of life.  The more we allow it to flow the more it cuts away our sinfulness and resistance and the greater our capacity becomes to channel an even greater abundance of God’s blessings and anointings to others.

 

Fr. Blaise Czaja, C.P. gives parish missions and retreats.  He is a member of the Passionist Community in Citrus Heights, California.